In high school writing was completely different, an assignment was written over the course of a month instead of a few weeks. In college, the longest period of writing you have is about two weeks and mostly half of that is just prewriting. In my previous English courses, prewriting was not the focus before college. Now, prewriting is one of the most important steps in the writing process. I expected a college level course to be more challenging and it certainly is. I never spent more than two hours writing papers before entering college. I learned that I love writing, and with just a little more patience and extra time I could have even excelled at my high school homework. Our first essay was a personal narrative. I chose to write about my grandfather because he had just passed away two weeks ago when the lesson started and writing about him really helped me. Looking back, I think I chose a topic in the heat of the moment instead of really thinking about it. While writing my essay there were several moments when I wanted to choose a different topic, not because it was difficult to write about, but because it evoked many emotions in me. It took me several days to write this essay, the story came naturally but sometimes the emotion took over. I wrote the introduction one day and then worked on the rest of the essay over the next three days. Once I thought of the introduction, I knew exactly where I wanted the story to go. I reread the essay twice to make sure I didn't leave out any important details from the story I was telling. Proofreading is not my favorite part of writing, and I'm certainly no different. I didn't spend as much time proofreading as I should have. As I wrote this in Word, I thought most of my... half the paper...... advertised it to check for grammatical errors. After finishing the essay, I would rate it not the best but not the worst either. This essay was challenging, but it also made me see things differently than an advertisement. Through this course and my previous experiences I have learned to spend more time on each stage of the writing process instead of rushing it. Proofreading is something I will continue to work on during my next course. I have a problem with commas and it has become quite thick. My writing has definitely improved since high school. I've never enjoyed writing essays, but I think I enjoy it now. With the right topic and guidance I think I could write wonderful essays. I am looking forward to improving my writing as my English lessons progress and I think with everything I have learned from this lesson it is absolutely possible.